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Norman Lear on Jean Stapleton’s Death

Norman Lear, the producer of “All in the Family,” selected Jean Stapleton for the part of Edith Bunker. He shared his thoughts on Ms. Stapleton’s death:

This will be short and sweet. Never as sweet as I’d wish it to be if I took a month to write it. I only just learned that Jean Stapleton, our beloved Edith — or Edith, our beloved Jean Stapleton — has passed.

Back in 1971, possibly the first time I was asked by a journalist, “What is Jean Stapleton like,” my reflexive response was, “She’s always where she is.” I was surprised by my answer, never had the thought before and never knew it resided within me.

Can I reach deeply enough inside me now to express how much that, the idea and Jean Stapleton herself has meant to me? I was at my computer when her glorious children, John and Pam, phoned me, and I told them I was working on my memoir, and reflecting on the time I was father to my personal family on Mooncrest Drive while also fathering Archie and Edith and three other families on CBS. And I added — so, at 90, here still is Jean Stapleton, “always where she is,” helping me to see my own frailties and humanity yet again. No one gave more profound “how to be a human being” lessons than Jean Stapleton.